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Symbolism In The Red Badge Of Courage By Stephen Crane

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In “ The Red Badge of Courage ” by Stephen Crane, symbolism is frequently used as a demonstration for the main character’s credulity, his instinctive perspective of war as well as the barbarity of the battlefield . Through this masterpiece, Stephen Crane wants to remind us all that people at times have immature feelings and trivial desires even though they may end up in tragedy. However, such fascination is nothing but a gullible thought of the adolescent. In this story, the main character- Henry is a boy who is overwhelmed by the eminence of war and the acknowledgement enlisting the army. Therefore, he conscripts himself for military service. However, it soon dawns on him that war is brutal and jeopardous, somewhat contradictory to what he visualizes before. The soldier’s wound, the corpses and the flag symbolize Henry’s most wide-eyed innervations, the cruelty of the war as well as Henry’s maturity.
The wound, without a doubt, is the most far-reaching symbol of the story. To Henry, wounds are “ a red badge of courage”, it represents the soldier dignity and offers one with great renown. “At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.” In other words, Henry wants a wound to substantiate that he fights heroically and sacrifices himself in the front line. However, wounds in “ The Red Badge of Courage” are not that simple. It reflects the

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